assets

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Submit!

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, April 2nd, 2009 - 1 comment

From No Right Turn. The Law and Order Committee has called for submissions on the Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Bill. Two copies, by Friday, 22 May 2009, to: Law and Order Committee Secretariat Parliament Buildings Wellington The bill would allow prisons to be privately managed. In the process, it would remove private prisons […]

Jonathan Coleman on TVNZ

Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, March 17th, 2009 - 42 comments

Jonathan Coleman on TVNZ. Parliament, 10 May 2007. Dr Jonathan Coleman When the Minister says that the Government is committed to the core objective of building national identity and will do so through television, does he not realise that New Zealanders do not want to be told by the Government what their identity is, and […]

90 axed at TVNZ

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, March 16th, 2009 - 56 comments

In what’s turning out to be the gift that just keeps on giving for National, the Recession Bogeyman is now being blamed for a need to axe 90 staff from TVNZ. The Minister for Broadcasting reckons the cuts are necessary to make sure TVNZ keeps returing a fat dividend, even in these extraordinary times, even […]

National to increase foreign ownership

Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, March 14th, 2009 - 39 comments

Newstalk ZB reports: The Prime Minister is keen to open the door to foreign investors. In a speech to the Act Party conference today, John Key said a review of the Overseas Investment Act will be announced by Finance Minister Bill English next week. The review aims to create an overseas investment screening regime that […]

See no evil

Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, March 14th, 2009 - 2 comments

I’ve been meaning to write something about the private prisons bill for a couple of days as it’s a recipe for barbarity. But I’ve decided there’s no way I could do a better job of it than I/S has at No Right Turn, so I’m just going to repeat his whole post here. (hopefully he […]

Cutting through the spin on ACC

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, March 13th, 2009 - 37 comments

We’ve heard a lot of panicky comments in the last few weeks about a ‘cost blowout’ at ACC. We’re told there is $22 billion in liabilities with $12 billion unfunded. That sounds bad, but what does it actually mean and what’s really happened? ACC used to be a ‘pay-as-you-go’ scheme. No money was put aside […]

Experts: National lying over ACC

Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, March 12th, 2009 - 46 comments

The wheels are starting to come off National’s PR campaign to undermine ACC as more and more people notice the gap between their spin and the reality. This morning’s Dom Post has an interesting article [offline*] where the managing director of actuaries Eriksen & Associates refutes Nick Smith’s lies about the “cost blowout” and the […]

Sensible Sentencing Trust and GEO Group, a deafening silence

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, March 11th, 2009 - 33 comments

Yesterday Tane did an excellent post speculating on links between the Sensible Sentencing Trust and GEO Group. GEO Group derived from the notorious Wackenhut Corrections and it now wants to run privately run and publically funded prisons in NZ. In the US, the GEO Group supports organizations preaching almost exactly the messages as the SST […]

Shafted

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, March 11th, 2009 - 17 comments

This is good. Here’s what ACC’s ads might look like once National’s had its way with it: [Hat tip: Clarke in the comments]

What they’re hiding

Written By: - Date published: 6:24 am, March 11th, 2009 - 41 comments

Interesting to see that the new ACC board chairman, John Judge, is an alumnus/affiliate member of the Business Roundtable. That’s the same Business Roundtable that has consistently said that: “the introduction of a state monopoly, no-fault accident compensation scheme in New Zealand had been a huge mistake” and argued “for the introduction of choice and […]

Private prisons and the ‘tough on crime’ lobby

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, March 10th, 2009 - 31 comments

One of the features of a privatised prison system is the potential for corruption of the political process by the commercial interests of private prison operators. Thanks to Tom in the comments it’s come to light that GEO Group, the company formerly known as Wackenhut and main contendor for National’s privatised prisons, has funded ‘tough […]

Centrist? Bullshit.

Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, March 9th, 2009 - 90 comments

The Herald has the scoop that National is looking to privatise New Zealand’s prison system. Add David Garrett’s savage three strikes law and you’ve got a real money spinner. But what lucky firm will get to cash in on it? Turns out it’s Geo Group. You might not be familiar with the name but that’s […]

NRT on National’s ACC antics

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, March 4th, 2009 - 15 comments

I’ve been meaning to write something about National’s attempts to beat up ACC’s costs in order to soften the ground for privatisation (see Farrar’s latest post here as an example), but No Right Turn captures it perfectly: During the election campaign, National attempted to minimise concerns that it would privatise ACC, saying merely that it […]

Sold out

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, February 16th, 2009 - 26 comments

According to the Dom Post Judith Collins is preparing legislation to reintroduce private prisons into New Zealand’s corrections system. The arguments against privatisation are manifold and many of them have been covered at The Standard before. Bottom line for me is that the right to take an individual citzen’s liberty comes from a compact between […]

Left to the market

Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, February 12th, 2009 - 34 comments

Two Pennsylvania Judges have been accused of taking bribes from private prison operators to ensure a reliable stream of prisoners. To quote Associated Press: In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately […]

The final cut

Written By: - Date published: 1:01 pm, December 18th, 2008 - 1 comment

Merry Christmas from National

Written By: - Date published: 3:17 pm, December 17th, 2008 - 28 comments

National’s decides to hit workers in the pocket: ACC Minister Nick Smith yesterday said levies would increase from $1.40 to $1.70 for every $100 earned from next April. The employer and self-employed levy would rise from $1.26 to $1.31. Recommendations by officials to increase motor vehicles levies and lift registration fees by $50 would not […]

Laying the foundations

Written By: - Date published: 4:33 pm, December 3rd, 2008 - 46 comments

Let’s not fool ourselves that what we’ve seen from National over the last 24 hours on to the shortfall in the ACC non-earners account hasn’t been carefully managed in a way to lay the foundation for their arguments in favour of privatising the scheme. I won’t go into a lot of detail around their motives, […]

A smoke-screen for the privatisation brigade

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, December 3rd, 2008 - 21 comments

Now that didn’t take long. Well rehearsed from the 1990s, National has already started using the privileged position of government to conjure up bogeymen to get their unpopular privatisation agenda past the public. John Key called an urgent press conference yesterday to beat-up a $1b shortfall in ACC funding. ‘OMG, this ACC thing is out […]

Prisons for profit

Written By: - Date published: 5:50 pm, October 28th, 2008 - 49 comments

National’s announcement that it plans to privatise the prison system says a lot about the party’s underlying values. Say what you like about National’s temporary flip-flops, underneath they haven’t changed a bit. Whether it’s ACC, privatising assets, drafting electoral law or reforming the Resource Management Act, the National Party stands for entrenching private power at […]

Trickle-down

Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, October 12th, 2008 - 11 comments

A few thoughts from today’s Agenda: Questioned about why National would introduce another tax rebate, having endlessly criticised Working for Families because of its complexity, English says ‘we do, in the long term, want a simpler tax system’. So, be on notice, Working for Families is under threat from National – they would ‘eventualy, but […]

Wait, what’s working?

Written By: - Date published: 6:26 am, August 13th, 2008 - 18 comments

ENGLISH: So we’re sitting here saying the punters are keen to keep it. They’re facing a recession. The last thing we want is to spend the whole election campaign with families of four on TV saying ‘Mr Key’s taking money off us’. You can’t do that. So later on we’re gonna have to have a […]

Sensitive about security

Written By: - Date published: 6:01 am, August 12th, 2008 - 20 comments

National activist/advisor Matthew Hooton on Nine to Noon: ‘the National Party leadership group is very sensitive about security. They look at the last election campaign that was lost on basically matters of security: the leak of the ‘gone by lunchtime’ notes and the Brethren link.’ No. National lost because it had a secret agenda; not […]

3 more points on the secret agenda tapes

Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, August 11th, 2008 - 61 comments

1) A secret agenda is not something that people talk about in public or when they know the information will get to the public. Therefore, the only way to expose a secret agenda with definite proof is by recording that evidence when the target does not know they are being recorded. The Police can’t just […]

08wire on Nats’ Kiwibank secret agenda

Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, August 6th, 2008 - Comments Off on 08wire on Nats’ Kiwibank secret agenda

08wire.org, your videos make me smile.

Did Lockwood mis-speak too?

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 pm, August 5th, 2008 - 94 comments

It has been revealed that Bill English isn’t the only senior Nat who has been discussing a secret agenda behind closed doors. On TV3 tonight, a recording was played of Lockwood Smith saying: “There’s some bloody dead fish you have to swallow… to get into Government to do the kinds of things you want to […]

Sarcophagus

Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, August 5th, 2008 - 9 comments

After a stunning attack on John Key last night, Bill English is now reverting to more standard National techniques for handling ‘accidental frankness’. Initially, deny. When played a recording, claim not to remember it. When that doesn’t kill the story, claim to have ‘mis-spoken’. Finally, attack the source. It’s the same pattern we saw with […]

Meltdown

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 pm, August 4th, 2008 - 90 comments

The English tape has exploded into a massive scandal. You’ll be familiar with the content of the recording: – English mocks voters as greedy simpletons taken in by a flashy con-man “they’re saying that nice Mr Key, he’s pretty smart, he will get me some more” – He claims Key doesn’t understand basic trade-offs in […]

Behind closed doors

Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, August 4th, 2008 - 69 comments

The scandal over Bill English’s comments at the National Party conference has not only overshadowed Key’s purposely vague conference announcements, it has derailed National’s entire election strategy. The audio is damning. Clearly and unequivocally, we have National’s Deputy Leader saying National will ‘eventually’ (possibly within a first term) sell Kiwibank. English not only says National […]

The War on P

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, July 22nd, 2008 - 9 comments

National Party strategist and Dominion Post columnist Richard Long declared war on “P” today. The “P’” word that is. Privatisation. Labour and the unions have attacked the proposed ACC changes by using the scare word “privatisation”, whereas the policy is actually aimed at providing choice in an area which is at present a monopoly.’ Actually […]

Kiwis love their rail

Written By: - Date published: 7:46 pm, July 21st, 2008 - 57 comments

A poll on TV1 shows that Kiwis overwhelmingly support the Government move to bring rail back into public ownership. Despite a question that explicitly states the cost of Kiwirail but none of the benefits, respondents still voiced very strong support for the purchase- 68% in favour vs 24% against. The Government has acted in a […]

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